


Three sins

by heart0fdarkness



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Abuse, Child Abuse, Physical Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 03:14:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20923235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heart0fdarkness/pseuds/heart0fdarkness
Summary: On the day Lord Kengo Moriyama breathes his last breath, three things happen worthy of a punishment; one after the other, in perfect and logical succession, like a chain of sins.[Tetsuji never wanted to be a father. Still, he won't let Riko think he ever had another one besides the Master himself.]





	Three sins

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [shatterbone](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11143467) by [okayantigone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/okayantigone/pseuds/okayantigone). 

> Tetsuji Moriyama is absolute and authentic trash. I never hated a character the way I hate this one: an abuser, a maker of abusers, a huge piece of crap who doesn't deserve my time. Of course I had to write down his character study. Also, I was in the mood for something dark and tragic. 
> 
> This was inspired by the one and only okayantigone, who wrote (among some of the best stories in the fandom) a beautiful pearl called: "shatterbone"; please, check that out and cry with me.

**THREE SINS**

(And the fourth goes unpunished)

_You're the only one I got___  
Plus a pocket full of forget-me-nots  
Then I fuck up, lost with no direction  
This is my one shot at redemption  
Oh can you, can you please  
Destroy me?  
I don't wanna come down.

\- Grandson, Destroy me

On the day Lord Kengo Moriyama breathes his last breath, three things happen worthy of a punishment; one after the other, in perfect and logical succession, like a chain of sins.

The first is shocking and unexpected and takes Tetsuji by surprise in a way the cold blood running through his reptilian body freezes up and sting in his veins: Riko asks to participate to his father’s funeral.

He makes that particular request with his head held high, eyes huge and black like deep wells and yet he whispers in the very thin, delicate voice he used to speak in when he was five and afraid of sleeping alone.

\- Can I go? - he says and there is something unmentionable and alien in his gaze.

_Sadness, _the Master realizes.

The second thing represents an inevitable consequence: Riko has the guts to fight back when the Master beats him up and Tetsuji can’t do anything, really, but beat him even harder. And harder. And _harder._

So hard he ends up tearing off strands of the boy’s hair with his bare fingers.

Black locks, soft and impregnated with blood, entangled under his nails.

The reason why Riko gets punished without a stick or a belt this time is the Master wants to feel it: he wants to feel the swelling of the skin colliding to his hands and test the boy's bones against his own peeling knuckles. He wants the lessons carved into Riko’s flesh once for all.

When everything is over, Tetsuji is drained and dripping with sweat and towers over his grandson like an Imperial Crow on its nest of shattered eggs.

He hit him too hard and Riko won't be able to show up on the field by the time the next tournament starts. _He hit him too hard, didn’t he? _

When the third thing finally happens, it’s almost like an answer to the thoughts pulsating in his brain.

Riko starts crying.

It doesn’t matter that he has just turned eighteen, nor that he is the Captain of the strongest Exy team in history. He stays there, like a small, contemptible and cruel pet. _Daring to cry._

Tears streak down his red cheeks like a trail of purity and Tetsuji should cut his skin for thinking he could afford such luxury.

He bends his knees to reach Riko’s broken body and gets ready to end it all for good.

_Can I go?_

_Poor little thing, aching for his dad._

Tetsuji cups Riko’s face in his fingers, squeezing it so hard his fingertips become white and bloodless. The boy blinks twice but the Master peers at him with different eyes.

Riko was seven years old when his uncle forbid him to cry, but since that day the boy disobeyed him on so many occasions - and has been punished on so many occasions – the Master has lost his count. Despite everything, however, he _never _got used to the dignity his nephew shows while being in pain.

His despair is silent and doesn’t produce the slightest noise.

Tears spill from his eyes like silent rivulets but Riko doesn't even make a sound.

_That _is something young Tetsuji was never able to do, especially when that son of a bitch of his father died without showing any form of consideration towards his second-born.

The Master exhales.

Then he changes his mind.

He swallows everything he has - the poison and the hatred and the secret euphoria invading him at the thought of Kengo’s death - and passes his thumbs under Riko’s eyes.

They are wet and burning like boiling waterfalls.

\- You were nothing to him and he was nothing to you but the shadow of a master. And your brother will be nothing to you except the ghost of his father. You understand?

Riko never looks away from Tetsuji but his breath starts trembling.

\- _I _raised you. _I _protected you and took care of you. _I _gave you everything. Kengo was never your father.

_I am._

Is that what he means?

Riko stares at him with such a pure disdain he could set the building on fire.

\- You understand it? – Tetsuji repeats and the boy nods, blinking twice to clear his eyes.

Riko collapses against the Master's body, a dead weight, but still light as a feather, forehead pressing against his shoulder.

_Staining a thousand-dollar shirt with blood and salt._

Tetsuji should punish him for that fourth and fatal error, but doesn’t.

Instead, he closes his palm on the back of Riko's neck as a simple, paternal gesture.

_Just for once, _the man tells himself_, just for once while no one is watching. _

He deserves it.

Riko is a creature of his own, after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize for my bad English.  
Did I say Tetsuji Moriyama is trash?


End file.
